by Israel Shamir
JAFFA, ISRAEL -- After the last episode of the 'Fateful Elections', the actors
amiably shared the trophies backstage. The muse of Israeli politics,
like Coca-Cola, wishes to please everybody. Whoever thought that Barak
was the best candidate, will be pleased to have him back in power as
the Minister of Defense. Those who were about to get nostalgic for
Shimon Peres, and were upset that he was not allowed to run, will have
Peres in the secondbest bed, as Shakespeare's widow. And yesterday's
monster Sharon has miraculously evolved into a wise statesman. It
really did make no sense to vote.
The elections were a sham, but the siege of Palestinian villages
is very real. Soldiers, who can't find enough demonstrators for target
practice, shoot at passenger cars. Gaza is awash with a new sort of
gas. Israeli tanks barrage suburbs of Bethlehem. A UN commission, sent
to investigate the war crimes, received the short shrift: how dare
they speak of war crimes? The Mitchell commission also got brushed
aside last week. As the response, the US warplanes bombed : Iraq
(surely some mistake?)
Innocent outsiders must question how Israel can get off scot-free
with war crimes and receive the blessings of the US congress as a
bonus? Could it be the Divine intervention? The answer is no. There is
another agent to thank for this state of affairs. We, Israelis, enjoy
full immunity, and have no doubt, if and when our government decides
to turn the Palestinians into canned meat, the New York Times will
celebrate its nutritional values. If that is their intent, they should
hasten the process, because with the present blockade, the
Palestinians are losing weight with every passing day.
All is fine on the Israeli side of the barricades. The Israeli
shekel remains strong. Even George Soros knows that it would not be
healthy to take a position against it. The Tel Aviv stock exchange
rallies on the news that Intel has decided to invest a cool five
billion dollars in Israel. The beauty of it all is that the siege of
the Palestinians and the prosperity of Tel Aviv are maintained at the
expense of the American taxpayer and investor. Since 1967, we have
received some 170 billion dollars from the people of the US. This
money could be used to feed and school all the underprivileged kids of
America. It could pay to compensate the descendants of the African
slaves and help them out of their hardship. It could save the sick and
comfort the miserable; it could turn Africa into a paradise. But it
was kidnapped and shipped to our shores. Every dollar invested by the
Israeli lobby into senators and congressmen has been returned a
hundred fold, as promised by the Bible.
Besides the taxpayer's money, the supporters of Israel - business
executives - invested billions of dollars that their shareholders
entrusted them with. There is no sound business reason behind Intel's
investment, or other similar investments - Israel has no pool of
qualified workers, they have to be imported like everything else. The
risk of the investments in our country is great and the profits are
meager. But then again, they are playing with somebody else's money.
Israel's supporters fleece America in a grand way, but they also
go after other prey. In England, a Czech Jewish emigre who adopted the
name of Robert Maxwell, stole millions of dollars from the pension
funds of his British employees and shipped the money to Israel. He was
found dead in suspicious circumstances, but Israel never refunded the
stolen goods. In another English scandal, Dame Shirley Porter,
daughter of salesman Jack Cohen, the supermarket chain owner and the
one-time mayor, misappropriated 50 million dollars and presented
lavish gifts to the Tel Aviv University, built on the ruins of the
destroyed Palestinian village of Sheikh Munis. She was found guilty by
the British High Court and sentenced to the fine of 27 million pounds.
As all her property had already been transferred to Israel, the fine
remains unpaid. Again, Israel did not return the stolen goods.
Moving on to France, a group of Israeli and local Jewish
financiers transferred to Israel some 40 million of public funds and
disappeared to Tel Aviv. A Russian Jew and Israeli citizen Lev Cherny,
a great supporter of Yeltsin's democracy, 'privatized' the Russian
aluminum industry, which has the biggest reserves in the world. Now
the income from that industry flows directly to lovely Savion, the
Beverly Hills of Israel. While back in the frozen wastes of Siberia,
the population has been reduced to poverty. The Swiss and the Germans
keep paying umpteen billions of dollars to Israel for the confiscated
property of Jews, though Israel never paid even one penny for the
confiscated Gentile property. The Europeans meekly comply under threat
of the toughest of brothers Cray, the mightiest enforcer of Jewish
loans, the US.
Israel's supporters overseas are like a giant Hoover machine,
sucking out money and sweat from all over the world. Witness Mark
Rich, the thieving billionaire, pardoned by the best supporter of
Israel, Bill Clinton? He was a Mossad agent. Remember Fujimori, a
thieving ex-president of Peru? Israeli banks helped him to launder the
money. Sometimes, the Palestinians and their friends bemoan their
inability to build up their own Arab lobby to counteract the Israeli
lobby. They miss the most important point. The Israeli lobby should
not be just a Palestinian concern, but the concern of all Americans.
When oil runs out of a tanker's hulk, it should concern the crew and
the owners, not only the fish. Israel's supporters swindle all
Americans of their money, and antagonize America's potential friends
abroad. Many American politicians support the swindle in order to
remain in power. For personal political ambitions, they betray the
trust of their voters.
John F. Kennedy told Gore Vidal, that in 1948, Harry Truman was on
the verge of losing the presidential election, but a Zionist supporter
brought to him 2 million dollars cash and saved his skin. It caused
America to vote for the creation of the Jewish State. This pattern
perpetuates itself. The politicians take bribes, sell pardons, accept
'donations', and help the Israeli lobby to rob the people of America.
The actual direct contribution of American Jews for the welfare of
Israel is quite small and tax exempt. It would hardly cover the cost
of the missiles and nerve gas to kill Palestinians, much less support
the Israeli life style to which we have become accustomed. But what
Israel supporters collect in campaign contributions is enough to bribe
politicians and embezzle a good chunk of American money from the US
treasury. If such a swindle would be hatched by, say, the Libyan
lobby, the media would rightly demand these people be registered as
foreign agents of influence. That is where the Israeli lobby cashes in
on the solidarity of the many American Jews and right-wing Christian
Zionists in the national media.
Ahmed Amr, an independent journalist from Seattle, Washington, has
lamented the total absence of the Arab-Americans in the American
media, saying 'Could it be, that like white men can't jump, the
Arab-Americans can't write? Could it be that mainly Jewish gentlemen
can write?' Well, he should know better. Even Jews, who can write but
fail to support Israel, are also deprived of access to the national
mainstream media. Israel's supporters have silenced the voice of
Americans who would speak up for the Palestinians, including notable
Jewish intellectuals like Chomsky. They silenced also the "native"
voice of Americans. The stock exchange rises and falls, but there is
no new Faulkner out of the South, no new Cheever in New England, no
new John Barth from Maryland. The Hollywood-made films have degraded
into sheer escapism and production of Arab-hate crap.
The enemy of Palestinians and of ordinary Americans, British and
French citizens is not 'the Jew', as some people tend to think. There
are thousands and thousands of wonderful folk of Jewish descent -
doctors, artists, rabbis, unemployed. A lot of them object to Israeli
crimes and to AIPAC policies. Some of them are on the front line of
the struggle for human rights. Now the time has come for us to stand
up and be counted.
The hesitating American Jews are in the position of the elder
sister in Raymond Chandler's Big Sleep, who covers up the crimes of
her wild kid sister. Probably you remember it by one of the best
American movies of all times, scripted by William Faulkner, directed
by Howard Hawks and acted by Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. As the
cover up continues, the young sister comes to believe that she has
immunity and keeps on her killing spree. Eventually her crimes
endanger the seemingly secure position of the elder sister. It is not
a day too early for misguided Lauren to call for Bogart and to rein
the crazed youth in, before she will bring the house down on the heads
of her blind supporters.
In spiritual terms, the blind support of Israel divided the Jews
into the sheep and the goats (Mt 25:32), into sons of saints and sons
of Mamon worshippers, the descendants of prophets and of their
killers, those who profess unity of mankind and adepts of national
exclusivity, those who wait for the saviour of man and those who
expect the enslaver of gentiles. The former ones will make the name of
Jews blessed, but those who would partake in the starving of poor
peasants under Israeli-imposed siege, those who would let them rot in
jails, they will certainly bring shame to all of us.
The covenant of Israel's supporters is not an ethnic monolith. It
admits Gentiles, as well; it is enough to disregard the poor, the
weak, the oppressed, and you can enter it. On the other hand, every
Jew can opt out of it by rejecting Israeli crimes. There is no
biological guilt or virtue. The believing Jews of Naturei Karta opted
out and supported the Palestinian right to life. So did Jews for
Justice, and many others who did not care to join a political group,
but stood away from evil. Wise French noblemen opted out of the
Ancienne Regime in 1789; they did not wait for the 'national razor' of
1793.
It is in interests of Americans, Jews and Gentiles alike, to start
with a full embargo of Israel. The idea of an exclusive Jewish state
is as wrong as the idea of an exclusive Aryan or White State.
Palestine/Israel should become a democracy based on the principle of
ONE MAN - ONE VOTE. Do not worry for us, Israelis and Palestinians, -
we, the sons of Abraham, can live together. Just cut off the supplies
to the Generals' Junta, and we shall see the light.
A democratic Israel/Palestine will turn off the Zionist Hoover
machine. The long madness of Don Quixote will be over, and he will be
called again Don Quexana the Good. The fruits of labor will come to
those who need it, not to Israeli generals. Americans will again
become welcome guests in the Middle East. Who knows, maybe even the
great American cinema will be reborn from its golden ashes.
Copyright © 2001 Israel Shamir. Israel Shamir, is one
of best-known and most respected Russian Israeli writers and
journalists. He wrote for Haaretz, BBC, Pravda and translated Agnon,
Joyce and Homer into Russian. He lives in Tel Aviv and writes a
weekly column in the Vesti, the biggest Russian-language paper in
Israel.
